1. Women in film
Joshua Askew

2. Film genres marketed at women
• Romantic comedy
• Romance
• “Chick flick”
• Horror
• Psychological thriller
This type of film is specifically marketed at women because it plays on either
their fears or the societal construct of them to need to find love. It is also said
that men are more in tune with their aggressive, primal side and therefore
action films are marketed more towards them.

3. Typical conventions of a ‘male’ action
film
• Explosions
• Guns
• Muscular men
• Attractive women
• Excessive death
• Vehicles- (car chase)
Other example films of this genre:
Predator
Commando
Aliens
Blade Runner
Total recall
Die Hard

4. Character types (With terminator as an
example)
Protagonist- Generally rather attractive and in good
shape the protagonist will be tasked with taking down
the Antagonist either through hunting them down or
trying to escape/ defend someone from them.
Love interest- Whilst they may not see eye to eye
with the protagonist at the beginning of the film it is
convention that they will at some point fall in love.
And in true 80’s style, have sex.
Antagonist- Generally presented as invincible for a large
portion of the movie it will come down to the ingenuity
of the protagonist to defeat this enemy. They are
ruthless killers and will take down anyone who gets in
their way.

5. The general narrative of an action film
The film will either start with the protagonist or
antagonist being presented. It will be clear
which as to the way they behave.
The plot is set with some sort of goal being laid
out.
It will be the job of the protag to complete this
while fighting off the antag.
It will end with some form of final fight with the
antag getting killed.

6. How are women presented in these
extracts?
Women are presented as strong an independent
force. They are driven towards a goal and able to
handle themselves.
They dress in a manner that is both sexualised
and combat efficient creating the idea of
“Badass” women.

7. Are the films any less credible
To answer this I have taken our sample male action text
(Terminator) and compared it with Kill Bill in terms of domestic
gross. Terminator had a worldwide domestic gross of
$78,019,031 Kill Bill, defined by it’s female lead grossed
$70,099,045. Proving that a female protagonists do not effect
the credibility of an action film.

8. A more recent example of an action
film with a female protagonist
In 2011 Luc Besson directed the film Colombiana. The film featured Zoe
Sandala as a woman out for revenge over her parents killers. This reflects the
collective empowerment of women that has taken place over the previous
years. Women are encouraged to be strong and independent striving hard to
achieve their goals, much like the protagonists of these films.

9. Gender roles
Joshua Askew

10. Gender roles & Romantic films
You’ve got mail 1998
Joe Fox, played by Tom Hanks, is quite obviously a man. He is presented to be
the owner of a large chain of bookstores. Therefore a business owner.
Kathleen Kelly, Meg Ryans, on the other hand is presented as a woman who
owns a small book store “The store around the corner”.
Their relationship portrays these roles as it is Joe who makes the first moves
and while love blossomed between them online their work persona’s hated
one another.

11. Sex and the city
Who is the target audience?
Women ranging from 20s-40s
How are the Gender roles different from You’ve got mail?
Rather than being presented as business owners these women leech off of
their husbands and are looking for a good time over “true love”
What societal factors may have affected traditional gender roles?
Women have been given the ability to freely express themselves sexually and
therefore now have shows geared toward this.

12. Cosmopolitan magazine
Cosmopolitan has played the role of
“Liberating” Women by “unlocking” their
sexual potential. Every issue will have
some mention of sex on the cover and
will often feature scantily clad women.

13. Gay representation in the media

14. How much of the content is aimed at
the Homosexual community?
I believe that Laura Mulvey was quite right in stating that media is crafted
with a “Male gaze”. This means that all media is produced with the target
audience of a hetrosexual male in mind. This is certainly the case when
looking at these magazines. 3 of the 4 feature a women who is posing sexily
and is under-dressed. GQ on the other hand presents a good-looking man. An
example of female gaze perhaps? No, but rather an aspirational target for
men. With this in mind it is clear to see why very little of the content is aimed
at Homosexual men or women.

15. Sugar rush
While it can be said that the narrative focuses on the homosexuality of the
protagonist, it is not concerned with it. The narrative is about a woman
looking for love, the fact she is looking for love with another woman is almost
completely irrelevant.
Why are gay characters not put in traditional roles? For example, how
different would a film like Die Hard be if Bruce Willis was gay?
Gay characters are generally not put in these roles as the ideals of the role
were set in a much less accepting time. This said however characters such as
Captain Jack Harkness, played by John Barrowman
in BBC’s Doctor who, were accepted by the
public with very little to no backlash.